Chriftianity, after having ftood fuch a trial as this, will no more be expofed to fuch virulent attacks as before, but will acquire fuch a fixed character of truth, as it could never have obtained without the oppofition which it has met with. Such has been the fate of all the branches of true philosophy, of the Copernician fyftem, the Newtonian theory of light and colours, and the Franklinian theory of electricity.

THE

THE CONCLUSION.

T is in vain to fay any thing by way of addrefs to perfons who will not read or think upon a fubject. To the profligate and unthinking among the unbelievers I fhall, therefore, fay nothing, because they will not give themfelves the trouble to read what I might be difpofed to say to them; but to the more mora!, fpeculative, and thoughtful unbelievers, into whofe hands this treatise may poffibly fall, I would obferve, and they must agree with me in it, that, in juftice to themselves and to the fubject, they should give it the most serious and deliberate examination. To men of reafon and reflection the evidences of chriftianity must appear the most interesting of all fubjects of inquiry. For what can be more fo than fully to afcertain, that the prefent ftate is not the whole of our exist

ence,

ence, but that Jefus Chrift, by the appointment of God his father, will come again to raise all the dead to a future endless life, and to give to every man according to his works. This is the great object and end of chriftian faith; and those who believe this important doctrine receive it on the authority of Jefus Chrift, whofe divine miffion was attested, as they believe, by such miracles as no man could have performed, without the prefence and concurrence of God.

Now before any perfon feriously rejects christianity, containing fuch important doctrines, he should certainly endeavour to fatisfy himself, at leaft on what foundation it is that he founds his diffent; and that fuch perfons may more cafily and effectually interrogate themselves upon the subject, I shall briefly propofe a few leading questions, which may perhaps assist them to ascertain the ftate of their own minds, and lead them to fuch reflections, or difquifitions, as may be of most use to them with refpect to it; at the fame time that they may serve as a

kind of recapitulation of a few of the principal arguments in favour of christianity.

Is it not an indifputed fact, that there was fuch a perfon as Jefus Chrift, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate in Judea.

Is it not alfo a well known fact, that he had fome followers when living, but, notwithstanding his ignominious fufferings, which difconcerted and difperfed all his adherents, many more after his death; and that he was even acknowledged by them to be the Meffiah, foretold by their antient prophets, though he fuftained a character the reverfe of what was expected by all the Jews, the good as well as the bad?

very

Are not the gospels, and the book of Acts, which contain the hiftory of the life of Christ, and of the propagation of his religion in the world, authentic writings? Were they not confidered in all the carly ages, both by the friends and enemies of christianity, as the genuine productions of the early difciples of Chrift?

Can

Can this be admitted, without admitting alfo, that what they relate concerning Chrift and his apoftles is, in the main, true, at leaft that they did fomething above the power of man; especially, that Chrift did actually rife from the dead, as he had foretold, and as a proof that what he taught he had by commiffion from God?

Is it probable that such men as the apostles were, fhould have been able to fhake off the ftrongest Jewish prejudices, which no other Jews, whether, with refpect to morality, they were good or bad men, were ever able to do? Can they be fuppofed capable of inventing fuch a ftory, and especially of making it gain credit with the world, in fuch an age as that in which they lived, and circumstanced as they were for that purpose?

Admitting this to be poffible, can any fufficient motive be affigned, to induce fo many of them, not only to enter into a scheme of this nature, but, what is much more, to carry it on, with a perfeverance unknown to the profeffors of

any

fcheme of

religion